Here’s our round up of January’s UK car news – the easiest way for those involved in Fleet Management in the UK to catch up with the latest stories…
UK Car News 2015: Driverless Vehicles are Coming
There has been a lot of talk about driverless vehicles in the last couple of months and with reports suggesting we could be seeing them regularly within the next two years, this is big UK car news. The latest update is that testing is now taking place in areas of the UK, including Greenwich, Milton Keynes, Bristol and Coventry. £10 million worth of funding from Innovate UK is being supplied for the project which will be active for between 18 and 36 to help us understand the role that driverless cars will play in our society.
UK Car News: Can your children afford to drive?
Here is some UK car news for those of you with teenage children. Research from comparison website GoCompare.com has discovered that learner drivers are increasingly spending more on their first car. The average cost for a new driver to get themselves on the road is now almost £6,800, an 18% increase from 5 years ago. The report shows that youngsters spent an average of £2,477 on the car itself in 2009, this figure has now risen to £3,825. Learning to drive now costs around £600 with driving students paying out for a provisional licence, lessons and tests. However it’s not all doom and gloom. They also suggest that the cost of insurance for young drivers is slowly deflating. The average insurance cost for a 17 year old is now £2,232, down from £2,455 back in ’09. This is a similar trend to the cost of business car insurance, although prices have slightly risen in the last two quarters.
Motorists Too Poor to Fix Vehicles
This UK car news is fairly worrying. A new study from Car Loan 4U reveals the worrying reality that motorists are driving unsafe cars on the road – because they cannot afford to fix them. The research has discovered that more than one in ten drivers are cutting back on vital maintenance needed to make their vehicle safe. The survey showed that millions of drivers are currently on the road with cracked windscreens, dodgy brakes and bald tyres, whilst other motorists admitted that they were using cars with missing wing mirrors, broken brake lights and seatbelts that aren’t working properly. Another scary statistic from the report discovered that 14% of drivers that were questioned do not feel safe driving their own vehicles, while another 17% were concerned when taking their cars on long journeys. James Wilkinson, CEO of Car Loan 4U said: “It’s worrying to see so many are putting off fixing or replacing their car and driving around in something which might not be safe enough to be on the road. Cutting corners on your car safety is not advisable, and even if you think you can’t afford it, there are options out there.” It’s a worry for fleet managers – does this mean your company car drivers are more likely to be involved in an accident, now that there are more drivers on the road in less than road-worthy cars?
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